FMU women look to take next step

GREENWOOD -- Francis Marion should be getting used to this.

Since Heather Macy took over the coaching position three seasons ago, the Patriot women’s basketball team has made the NCAA Division II tournament with a run-and-gun style of offense that has made FMU one of the nation’s highest scoring units.

Today at noon, the 17th-ranked Patriots look to make another run at the national championship when they open the tournament as a No. 3 seed against Newberry on the campus of Lander University.

FMU (26-4) enters the tournament averaging 90.3 points per game, mostly by combining pressure defense with transition offense. In the last month, however, the Patriots have fared much better in their halfcourt offense with opponents switching to zone defenses to stop them.

“(Improvements in the offense) have been big for us,” said Macy, whose Patriots are playing in the NCAA tournament for the eighth time since 1992. “We’ve been a much better team executing in the halfcourt.”

First-team all-Peach Belt conference selection Shannon Singleton-Bates leads a balanced FMU scoring attack with 16.2 points per game. Eboni Fields and Nicole Mealing average 12.1 and 11 points, respectively.

Shana Franks is scoring 10.5 points per contest, and Precious Tucker pulls down a team-leading 6.5 rebounds to go along with 9.3 points per game.

“That’s the testament of a good team,” Macy said. “You can be a difficult team to stop when you have multiple people scoring, and that’s what we’ve preached all season.”

In other games, Lander will also make its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance and will host the regional for the first time. The Bearcats set team records for wins in a season with 25 and a 14-game winning streak. The Bearcats (25-3) will face eighth-seeded Anderson, Conference Carolinas champions, today.

Peach Belt champion Clayton State returns to the NCAA field for the sixth straight year, the longest current streak in the PBC. The Lakers won the regional event in 2007 and 2009, making their first two trips to the Elite Eight. At 24-6 overall, the second-seeded Lakers will face Tusculum today.

No. 4 seed Lenoir-Rhyne will face fifth-seeded Carson-Newman in the first round.

FMU has had its share of problems with Clayton State in the past. The Patriots were routed by the Lakers in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Smith University Center in 2007.

FMU squandered a 19-point second-half advantage against the Lakers on Feb. 13 en route to its lone home loss of the season. The Patriots suffered a 94-75 loss to Clayton State in the PBC tournament championship game on Sunday.

Despite the negative history, Macy said she is proud of what her team has done and the fan support that has been present since her arrival at FMU from Pfeiffer.

“I couldn’t have been more pleased with the support of the community, including the students, the professors and the athletic department,” she said. “The interest in women’s basketball is growing here.

“I expect to walk out and see a lot of familiar faces (today).”